Carson sheriff’s station Sergeant Darrin Offringa gave the ultimate gift to his former patrol partner Lakewood Sheriff’s Deputy Kevin Ay by donating one of his kidneys to Ay who was in need of transplant due to renal failure. The transplant surgery took place November 29, 2016 and both are doing well. Ay, left, and Offringa laugh as they share story with news media during press conference at Hall of Justice in Los Angeles. Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. (Robert Casillas/Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Carson sheriff’s station Sergeant Darrin Offringa gave the ultimate gift to his former patrol partner Lakewood Sheriff’s Deputy Kevin Ay by donating one of his kidneys to Ay who was in need of transplant due to renal failure. The transplant surgery took place November 29, 2016 and both are doing well. Post-surgery thumbs up from Sergeant Offringa. (Courtesy photo)

Darrin Offringa gave his former trainee a priceless early Christmas gift that should stay with him for the rest of his life.

Offringa, a sergeant at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Carson station, donated his left kidney to Deputy Kevin Ay, who trained with him six years ago at the Lakewood station.

The two have been friends since they worked together. But their friendship has a new depth since the successful Nov. 29 transplant operation at UCLA Medical Center.

“I’ve always thought highly of Darrin. But knowing that I’m carrying him with me for the rest of my life is definitely a new experience,” Ay said. “Words can’t really express how grateful I am.

“If our story can help convince anybody to go through with it and make that donation, it’s the best gift anybody can make.”

Waiting for a kidney

Ay was diagnosed with renal failure three years ago, at the age of 33. The disease, the result of a congenital birth defect, struck a week after Ay was promoted to training officer at the Lakewood station, where Offringa trained him to police the streets.

At the time, he and his wife had a young child and infant, and it would be at least 10 years before he could get a donated kidney through the state’s waiting list.

“I immediately had to step away from my new position because I wasn’t able to go out in the field,” Ay said. “It was rough. I had always known that this was probably going to happen one day. I did my best to mentally prepare for it, but there’s no way to really prepare for that.”

He didn’t stay out of the field long. As soon as he began hemodialysis treatments, he returned to the streets, balancing his treatments — four hours each, three times a week — with work and family life.

Kidneys are the most sought-after replacement organs. Roughly five of every six people on the national organ-donor registry are awaiting one. In Los Angeles County, demand is so high that the wait can be up to 15 years for a kidney, Ay said.

He suffered joint pain and other discomforts but said the biggest challenge was spending so much time away from his family. Even on vacations, he had to leave for hours at a time to get hemodialysis treatments.

“The hardest part is the time dialysis takes away from my family,” Ay said. “We had two children under 4 at home, and I was going through all these medical problems.”

The good Samaritan

Offringa noticed Ay’s swollen wrist — damage from the tube inserted into his blood supply to drain and clean it during hemodialysis — months after his 2013 diagnosis.

“When it came to my disease and my health problems, I held a lot of things close to the chest,” Ay said. “I didn’t tell a lot of people.”

But he was closer to Offringa than most and told him about his kidney failure when he asked about his misshapen wrist.

“Initially it was like, aww, that sucks, dude,” said Offringa, who is now a sergeant at Carson station. Through 2014 and 2015, the men met for lunch when they had time and talked about work and their growing families.

The troubles Ay faced weighed on Offringa.

“It was like a small voice kinda creeping in,” Offringa said. “I felt pulled to actually donate. And the more I read some of the examples in the Bible about sacrificial love and the more I prayed, it came into full focus.”

He reflected on the Parable of the Good Samaritan and the life of Paul the Apostle. By early this year, his calling was clear.

“I did nothing to deserve my salvation,” he said. “Look at the Apostle Paul’s life — it all comes down to serving one another. Some people are called to the mission field as pastors. I’ve been in service to my community. I was in the U.S. Marine Corps prior to being in the Sheriff’s Department.

“For whatever reason, God asked and I had nothing to do but reply.”

The first time Offringa told Ay he wanted to give him one of his kidneys, Ay brushed it off as a nice gesture. The next time he asked, Ay got him the donor paperwork. With healthy lifestyles, people can function for a lifetime with just one kidney.

“I was worried about the stress it would put on him and their family,” Ay said. “When he told me (his wife) Jen was on board and was supportive, I gave him the information. I didn’t initially get my hopes up.”

Ay’s wife, Jessica, said he told her: “‘I’m not going to get excited until they’re wheeling me down the hall.’ Because he just thought anything could go wrong at any time.”

The two men are largely recovered from the Nov. 29 operation, though full recovery will take months.

“I get a little tired but all the pain was gone after seven days,” Offringa said. “I’ve got some discomfort. It’s like a small version of a C-section so I can relate to my wife.”

Jennifer Offringa said she never questioned her husband’s decision to go under the knife for Ay, though they have three young children.

“I was really happy when he told me that this is what he felt the Lord was calling him to do,” Jennifer said. “I had a lot of logistical questions about the actual operation. But I knew that if this is what he felt he was supposed than that was what he’s supposed to do.”

Sandy Mazza is a freelancer. She previously worked for Southern California News Group as a city reporter covering Carson and Hawthorne and specializing in features about Los Angeles' growing Silicon Beach tech, bioscience, and aerospace sectors.